Monday, July 6, 2009

Mystery Photo III - Miles From Home


Who knew Newtown was so far from Sydney ?! Or is it ?
Whereabouts in the broader Newtown area is this delightful stone hidden ?

No prizes other than smug self-satisfaction - which is surely reward in itself.

18 comments:

  1. I'm going to guess that it's in Victoria Park, somewhere near the intersection of City Rd and Parramatta Rd, in which case the distance would be II (2) miles, not 11 miles. Looking at the map, I can't see anywhere in the Newtown environs that would be 11 miles from Sydney.

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  2. Corner of Wilson street & queen street, technically I think it's located in golden grove / darlington

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  3. No-one's got it yet - @darkstardeity is the closest so far, and has got the maths right. Glompbot has the wrong location but is correct in that I have been a little liberal in my definition of Newtown (hence 'broader Newtown') !

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  4. My second guess would be somewhere on the Darlington campus of Sydney Uni along City Rd - I'm thinking near the corner of Butlin Ave, in front of the Merewether building maybe, near the old horse-watering trough.

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  5. Warmer and colder at the same time :) I'll be after a street name here ... the last ones were too easy !

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  6. Judging by the plants surrounding the marker and my memory of student days, I will hazard a guess that is at the University Ave entrance near Parramatta Road (exit near Glebe Point Road and opposite Derwent St).

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  7. Very very close - just a few hundred metres (yards might be more appropriate) away !

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  8. Ok, I've put in a walking path on Google Maps from the central marker at Macquarie Place up Parramatta Road. 2 Miles direct walking route gets you to the corner of Victoria Park where Broadway and City Road now meet.

    So I'm guessing it is somewhere near that corner near the artificial lake!

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  9. Not sure they measured with Google Maps in those days :) You were closer before - it is on campus, but not on University Ave.

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  10. I believe it's on Science Road, southern side close to the Quad.

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  11. Did they measure as the crow flies or via the main road?

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  12. I'd like to know - I wouldn't be surprised if the milestone was moved at some stage during the last century or so. I'll see if someone from the uni has the history. I'm not sure how accurate they were in those days.

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  13. I am pretty sure that Science Road was actually Parramatta road, in the past, so the stone is an actual marker and the other side says Parramatta XIX (or whatever the measurement is)

    Also, they may have used miles, which would explain why its placed further than 2k from sydney. Remember sydney uni was around in the 1800s!

    I love sydney uni trivia..

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  14. See http://bit.ly/1oGF7Z for more on the location ! Thanks for all the comments and guesses.

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  15. Victoria park used to be part of sydney uni, but was given to the city by the uni. The 2 mile marker could have originally been down on the corner of city rd and parra rd, and moved up to the uni proper at the same time as the original uni gates were moved from that same corner to the city rd enterence of the uni, which have since been moved back to Victoria park and replaced in their original spot when the city rd enterence/ bus stop/ footbridge was re-done recently. Oh, and there's always been a lake there, it was a traditional meeting place for the eora and gadigal peoples (before the white people came and made it their book-learnin' place), which is one of the reasons the tent embassy was in the park during the olympics.

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  16. Nice work BM Dog.

    I wonder if there is a photo of Science Road when it was the main route to Parramatta. It makes sense given that part of Parramatta Road is a deep cutting with concrete sides that looks pretty modern.

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